Oregon State University Libraries Evaluation of the Collection supporting a
Proposal to Initiate a New Instructional Program for an
B.A./B.S H.B.A/H.B.S/B.F.A. in Digital Communications Major
This assessment reviews the serial and monographic literature in the area of media, communications and digital communication. This new major builds on the existing NMC liberal arts option and adds a number of new courses to the major. Some of these courses are research intensive and require access to library resources
Summary
The Oregon State university Libraries’ collections are adequate to support an undergraduate degree in digital communications. OSU’s monographs collection is not quite as strong as some of the peer institutions but can be easily supplemented with Summit materials. The journal collection is also adequate but the addition of two journals requested for the proposed for the MA in Speech Communication would be very beneficial but not essential.
Monographs
The theory and research courses rely primarily on journal literature and not as heavily on monographic literature. Digital Communication is an interdisciplinary topic and there is no single good subject heading for this area of study so the reviewer selected 10 Library of Congress Subject headings (LCSH) that should cover most of the discipline. Some areas, such as art, theater, English and writing were not reviewed specifically although students may take courses in these colleges or departments. Subject librarians work together to fill in gaps in areas.
An analysis of the OSU Libraries’ Catalog reveals that in the 9 LCSH headings selected, OSU holds 77% or more of the collection of the peer institutions. The only area where OSU is weaker is in Social Media (See Appendix A). This deficiency can be made up with the current book budget and the students have access to Summit books and Interlibrary Loan to supplement OSU holdings. The OSU Libraries belongs to a consortium of Washington and Oregon libraries and students and faculty can easily request materials from these other libraries and receive them within 3-5 days. Since monographic literature is not primary to the program, no change in the book budget is necessary.
Serials/Journals:
Currency is important in this field so access to current periodicals is necessary. Since this is a practical degree with a significant theoretical base, access to some scholarly literature is important.
Print / Online / ILL requests (5 years by undergrads)Journal of Communication / 1951-2005 / 2006-2009 / 14 (2.8 year)
Human Communication Research / 1985-2005 / 2006-2009 / 8 (1.6 year)
Communication Research / 1974-2007 / 1999-present
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (open access) / N/A / 2008-present
Journal of Popular Culture / 1967-2006 / 1990-present
Wired / 1994- / 1993-present
PC / 1990-2009 / 1984-present
MIT’s Technology Review / 1997-1998 / 1997-1998
Computer Graphics World / 2006- / 1988-present
Electronic Gaming Monthly / N/A / 1999-2009
Entrepreneur (partially Open Access) / N/A / 1996-present
Business Week / 1929- / 2001-present
The Journal of Communication and Human Communication Research would be useful journals to have but the students can use interlibrary loan to acquire articles. These two titles were recommended for purchase in the Category I proposal for the MA in Speech Communication submitted in October of 2010. Purchasing these for the MA program would be highly beneficial to this program[1]. The number of requests by undergraduates from these two journals is low and interlibrary loan should be able to supply the necessary materials. As an undergraduate program, however, the current journal and magazine access is adequate.
Media and Video
The students in the program will need access to certain videos and media resources. The library owns the SIGGRAPH video review DVDs (subscription) and the BBC Sound Effects Library on CD-ROM. Additional DVDs can be purchased with the current video fund as necessary.
Subject-Specific Indexes and Abstracts
OSU Libraries subscribes to the following databases that can be useful for identifying literature covering art, communication, business and technology topics:
· Academic OneFile (1980 – present)
· Academic Search Premier (1975 – present)
· Communication and Mass Media (1980-present)
· LexisNexis Academic (varies)
· Business Source Premier (1886 – present)
· Art Index and Art Fulltext (1984-present)
· CAMIO – catalog of Art Museum Images Online (present)
· Fine Arts and Music Collection (1980-present)
· Film Literature Index (varies) (free from Indiana University)
Communication and Mass Media database includes 147 full text titles in that database; 101 of these are active and 54 are scholarly/peer-reviewed. This in combination with the other databases provides adequate access to the literature for an undergraduate program.
Library staff and expertise:
Librarian support for this program as proposed is Stefanie Buck, librarian for New Media Communication, Speech Communication, Theater Arts and English and Ruth Vondracek, Art librarian.
Respectfully submitted,
Stefanie Buck
02/04/2011
Appendix A:
Monograph Holdings Comparison 2001-2011Core Subject Headings / OSU (ORE) / Oklahoma State (OKS) / Washington State (NTE) / Eastern Washington (WEA) / OSU Rank Among Peers / OSU Compared to Lowest Peer / OSU Compared to Highest Peer / OSU Compared to Average / OSU Compared to Median
Mass media / 414 / 622 / 849 / 158 / 3 / 262% / 49% / 81% / 80%
Electronic commerce / 209 / 456 / 332 / 114 / 3 / 183% / 46% / 75% / 77%
Multimedia systems / 73 / 65 / 104 / 17 / 2 / 429% / 70% / 113% / 106%
Visual Communication / 68 / 80 / 92 / 22 / 3 / 309% / 74% / 104% / 92%
Digital media / 84 / 97 / 108 / 27 / 3 / 311% / 78% / 106% / 93%
Computer games / 52 / 68 / 56 / 57 / 4 / 93% / 76% / 89% / 92%
Communication and technology / 26 / 23 / 33 / 7 / 2 / 371% / 79% / 117% / 106%
Media Literacy / 20 / 21 / 39 / 6 / 3 / 333% / 51% / 93% / 98%
Social Media / 5 / 28 / 14 / 6 / 4 / 83% / 18% / 38% / 50%
[1] A subscription to these journals would cost $1,034 for each title.